Going the Distance

Post date: Jan 05, 2015 5:24:32 PM

An essay by Shunran Xu

Symbolically, distance running means endurance. However, my decision to run in the Zhuhai 2011 Half-Marathon Competition was nothing more than trying to defy convention.

In China, teachers pick students who they judge as the best to participate in sports, and the rest are left for cheering. Because I was always shorter and thinner than my classmates, I had never been selected to compete during my school’s annual sports festival. When I told my teachers and classmates that I would run for thirteen miles, they all thought it was a joke. Yet, my persistence drove me to practice, practice, and practice, every day after school.

During the entire game, I did not stop to relax. When I finally crossed the finish line, my sense of achievement was overwhelming. I showed the world that I am not feeble, and the witnesses to my strength were those astounded teachers and classmates.

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